She Was Not the Same
by Cat Steven
Summary: After being dared to play with an Ouija board, things take a turn for the worse for Peridot. She may be a gem, but that doesn't mean she can't be controlled by spirits.


Peridot was playing Truth or Dare with all of the Crystal Gems. She didn't like this game, because the dares could be bad, and the truths could be bad.

However, she never expected to be dared something as spine-chilling as this.

It was Amethyst's turn to ask someone Truth or Dare. She eyed Peridot, then Steven, then Pearl. Finally, she turned to Garnet.

"Truth or dare?" she asked evilly. Garnet thought for a moment. "You can't use your future vision!" Amethyst said.

Garnet sighed. "How about truth?"

"Okay," Amethyst said. "What is an embarrassing fact I should know about you?" she asked, smirking.

Garnet sat still.

"There really isn't anything," she said. Amethyst sighed at another failed attempt to start laughing and making fun.

Garnet eyed everybody. "Pearl, truth or dare?" she asked.

With Ruby and Sapphire thinking together, who knew what crazy things they could ask or dare?

"Um, dare?" Pearl said uncomfortably. She didn't know where this was going.

"Do your best evil laugh as loud as you can," Garnet decided.

Pearl blushed lightly. "I don't know…but it was a dare." She sighed, and then began to cackle like a madman. Everybody laughed, and she did, too.

"Lapis, truth or dare?" She asked. "Truth," Lapis Lazuli said. "Who is the most annoying person you know?" Pearl asked. Lapis cringed.

"I don't know," she replied. "Oh, yes I do. JASPER!" She turned to Steven. "Truth or dare?" she asked him.

"Dare," Steven said.

"Go outside and sing your national anthem, is that what it's called? In your worst voice," Lapis said. "Alright…" Steven said.

He got up from the couch and sang as loud as he could in his most terrible voice.

It was during the night, but anyways people noticed.

He laughed at their reactions and sat back on the couch to join the Gems.

"Um, I can't think of one. Peridot, ask me something."

"Okay," Peridot said proudly.

She had good question in mind. "TRUTH or dare?" she asked, stretching _truth_ ever so slightly.

"Truth," Steven said, smiling. He knew Peridot had embarrassing dares in mind.

"Who's the worst dressed in the room? You can't say yourself or an inanimate object."

"Lion," Steven said. "He is in the room."

"HE ISN'T EVEN WEARING ANYTHING!" the sad Peridot sighed.

"Peridot, truth or dare?" Steven asked, finally thinking of some.

"Hmm, how about two dares."

"Two? Okay…" Steven said. Even though it wasn't following the rules it was her first time playing, so he wanted to make it special.

"First dare: show all of us how good you are at break dancing." Peridot blushed. "I can't dance!" she whimpered.

"She can't," Lapis said.

Peridot rolled her eyes at Lapis.

She stood up from the floor, walked to where she had more space, and started to break dance.

Everybody laughed and clapped when she finished. She bowed, feeling somewhat prideful. "Next dare!"

"Push your nose up and oink like a pig. Sniff all over the person to your left!" Steven said.

Peridot squeaked awkwardly when she looked to her left and saw Garnet.

"You can't shapeshift, either, even if you know how," Steven added.

"Well, show us what you got," Garnet said. She gave Peridot a smirk.

Peridot got on all fours, and paused for a moment, thinking of the best way to mimic an oinking pig.

She oinked loudly while sticking her nose up high in the air, and that got everybody laughing.

She sniffed all over Garnet, who unsurprisingly kept a straight face.

When she finished, she faced Amethyst. "Truth or dare?" Amethyst thought for a moment.

"Truth." She smirked.

"Do you shapeshift into me and practice Peri-phrasing anymore?" Peridot asked. "Yes," Amethyst said. She wasn't ashamed or anything, which made Peridot laugh.

"Peridot, truth or dare?" asked Amethyst.

"Truth," Peridot said.

"Who do you want to kiss most in this room?" Amethyst asked. Peridot sighed. "Dare. A backup."

"I dare you to play an Ouija board, but with us around," Amethyst announced proudly.

Everybody stopped what they were doing and turned to stare at Amethyst.

"You heard me right," she said. "I got one right behind me."

She picked it up and set it on Peridot's lap.

"What is this?" Peridot asked. "You communicate with ghosts, basically," said Amethyst.

Peridot already knew what a ghost was from one of the books Lapis let her borrow.

"I don't know if I want to do this…" Peridot whimpered.

"Then you have to answer the truth!" Amethyst said.

"I'll do the Ouija."

"Okay."

Once they took the board out and set it up, everybody was watching Peridot as she placed her hands on the planchette.

"Spirit, are you here?" she asked. Peridot could sense some invisible presence moving the planchette to _yes_.

"What do you want from me?" Peridot asked. She waited patiently as the force spelled out some words, giving an unsettling answer. _YOU._

Peridot whimpered. "What is your name?" she asked.

 _ZOZO,_ it spelled out.

Peridot whimpered once more, knowing that Zozo was one of the most powerful demons.

"Will you harm me?" Peridot asked. "Or any of us?"

 _MAYBE PERIDOT 5XG._

"How do you know part of my name?" Peridot asked it, shaking. The planchette moved again. _CONTROL._ "What?" Peridot said.

Suddenly, Peridot began to growl slightly. Her eyes were showing their whites (which a gem could do, but Peridot was acting very strange), and she growled louder.

She somehow swept the Ouija board and its planchette away without touching it, and grabbed Garnet's arm. In an unnaturally deep voice, she bellowed, "666," over and over again.

"What the heck is happening?" Lapis asked. "This is not normal. And what does '666' mean?"

"The devil's number…" Steven said, fear taking over his voice. Garnet looked deeply disturbed as Peridot kept tugging her arm.

Suddenly, she let go, and began to act like a variety of different animals. You name one.

When she finished, she began to bleed from the mouth, which scared everybody. "Gems don't have blood," Steven muttered.

Amethyst couldn't even speak.

Peridot suddenly began to bellow some Latin in an unnatural voice while her head rotated repeatedly.

"Most gems can't even do that," said Pearl. She was so shaken nobody could understand what she was trying to say,

Then, her body contorted so unnaturally it shook everyone. Not even the best contortionist in the world (Julia Günthel, for instance) could mimic her.

Her limbs bent backward (like a flamingo's legs), which no human nor Gem could do, and then they became normal.

Peridot groaned, and then laughed, then screamed, then cried. She was acting so wildly the Gems had to keep Steven from dialing 911.

"Help me," Peridot screeched quickly with her normal voice.

She was tossed _very_ strongly all the way upstairs on Steven's bed, where the Gems and Steven rushed to watch her.

She got on all fours, growling like a rabid dog, seemingly trying to protect something invisible behind her.

She suddenly laid back and fell asleep, like nothing abnormal had ever happened.

"What the heck happened?" Amethyst asked. "What in the world?"

"Playing with black magic isn't good," Pearl said. "We may be gems, but confirmed just now we can still get controlled by invisible spiritual forces."

"Will she be okay?" Steven asked. "She was acting like she turned into elastic."

"She'll be fine," Garnet said.

Steven's phone, which sat calmly on the dresser, began to ring.

"I'm just going to see who's calling," he said, and identified the caller's name/ID.

 _Unknown._

"What the…?" he said, and answered.

"Hello? This is Steven Universe, who is this?" he said.

"Hullo, hullo," said the "caller" in a deep voice. "I was just calling for a little chat."

"Who is this?" Steven said again.

"Peridot," the voice answered, perfectly mimicking her voice.

He quickly ended the call. He didn't need anything bothering them because they were dealing with a supposed demonic possession.

All because of that stupid Ouija board.

Peridot didn't seem disturbed. All she did was mutter curse words unapprovingly in her sleep in a strangely high pitched voice, which Steven did his best to ignore. Eventually she stopped.

"Well, we're definitely not doing an exorcism or anything," Amethyst said.

"You sure about that?" Lapis said.

Sadly the Gems weren't sure.

"Steven, you okay?" Lapis asked.

Steven just sat at the edge of his bed, staring at Peridot.

"Steven?"

He began to tremble as he laid his eyes on this inhuman being laying before him.

"Ste-man?" Amethyst said.

They began to look at what he was staring at. Peridot was… "awake". She was on all fours, and her eyes were black, leaking a foul substance.

She shrieked at the Gems and Steven. She leapt across the room, making weird jerking movements, as if her "bones" were popping out of their joints, crawling up to the corner of the _ceiling!_

"Holy water? Anyone?" Steven whispered frantically.

The gems didn't really have much religious beliefs. They learned a lot of it from Greg, though. There was no need for holy water.

"Dude, we're _not_ doing an exorcism," Amethyst whined.

Ignoring Amethyst, Steven grabbed his water bottle, opened it, and thrust the bottle at Peridot. She shrieked and fell back on her feet.

"That wasn't even holy water," Lapis marveled.

"Let's just leave her alone…" Amethyst suggested. When they went back downstairs to put on a classic Disney film, Steven secretly had filmed her strange actions the whole time (well, secretly because the Gems thought he was going to dial the police which he almost did).

* * *

 **LATER…**

* * *

Peridot jolted awake, sobbing. She didn't even know why she was crying, but she felt sad. It was still late at night – but she couldn't remember what she had been doing. She could smell something…burning? Cooking?

"Hello?" Peridot said, between sobs, hoping someone would hear her.

Lapis rushed upstairs to hearing Peridot cry. "Peridot? You're okay!" Lapis said, giving her a hug. "What's up, Lapis? You don't usually give hugs," Peridot said.

"Let's just say you had a big…incident last night, and we were all concerned for you. You weren't yourself," Lapis said. "It was…terrifying. Even Garnet was scared."

Peridot's eyes widened.

"Really?"

"Well, Steven managed to get some on tape." Lapis handed Peridot Steven's phone, which wasn't in very good condition, and watched the video.

"That was so creepy," Peridot breathed.

Amethyst went upstairs, and when she saw the good Peridot was back, she gave her a tight hug. "Peri-dactyl!" she said. "You're back!" "Yup!" Peridot said.

"I just watched a video of…my "possession". It was…strange."

"At least you weren't hurling green pea soup like Regan from _The Exorcist_!" Amethyst bellowed, laughing.

"…Who's Regan again?"

Lapis laughed. "Don't worry about Regan…"

"Right. Anyways, let's play another game, definitely not truth or dare. If you insist on playing it, I'm not taking part in it if I have to play with another Ouija board…" Peridot said.

"Definitely not…" Amethyst said.

"Well, let's go then…" Lapis said. They headed downstairs, and were met by the Gems watching a movie along with Steven.

"So…what's that burning smell?" Peridot asked Amethyst, who was munching greedily on popcorn.

"We burned the Ouija," Amethyst said. "So that ghost thingy wouldn't come back."

"Smart choice…" Peridot said, shaking. She huddled under a blanket to continue watching the wonderful film with the Gems. She wished she could have some popcorn herself.

As she watched the film, she slowly began to recall the ugly scenes of her demonic possession. She shrieked aloud in horror as she witnessed them in her head.

"Peri? You okay?" Amethyst said. She scooted closer, just to make Peridot comfortable and feel safe. She slowly began to relax and watch the movie, no distractions in mind.

What happened that night, she would never forget.

* * *

 **I hope you enjoyed the story! I had writer's block so I wrote this. Be sure to leave a review and or critiques! -Paige**


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